Wall Street traders were quaking in their loafers yesterday that pink slips and an eventual shuttering of the storied New York Stock Exchange were in the offing after US rival Nasdaq made a hostile bid to wrest the Big Board away from its German suitors, the Deutsche Boerse.

The $11.3 billion offer from Nasdaq OMX — with a little help from the smaller IntercontinentalExchange — would keep Wall Street’s storied exchange under the control of a US company but, some people fear, would lead to more job losses and the possible shuttering of the world-famous, 15,000 square foot trading floor at 18 Broad Street constructed near the turn of the century.

Nasdaq CEO Bob Greifeld and ICE’s Jeffrey Sprecher tried to allay those fears and played to shareholders’ patriotism in a conference call after their morning announcement. Greifeld said there were no plans to close the trading floor.

However, some Wall Street insiders and traders expressed skepticism about the benefits of the proposed domestic link-up, which would create one mega-exchange under one roof from two of the country’s biggest exchange platforms.

“This is all about an elimination of redundant data centers and an elimination of redundant people,” said Patrick Healy, CEO of Issuer Advisory Group, which advises companies about exchange platforms. “There’s just no way that [Nasdaq and ICE] can achieve cost synergies without shutting the floor of the exchange.”

Nasdaq and ICE’s offer translates into a bid of $42.50 a share in cash and stock for NYSE — a roughly 21 percent premium to Thursday’s closing price of NYSE shares and topping Deutsche Boerse’s offer by roughly the same measure.

“The officials at the [Nasdaq and ICE] will undoubtedly say anything to get the merger completed,” said Larry Harris, a professor of finance at the University of Southern California.

Harris also said that he believes that a virtual shuttering of the NYSE floor was a fait accompli, and pointed to Paris and Toronto as exchanges that closed their physical trading floors after major mergers.

The landmark NYSE building was constructed in 1903 and New Yorkers and the world have been trading stocks under the 72-foot ceiling since then. While most stock trading has become an all-electronic affair — and the number of traders on the floor of the NYSE has dwindled from a couple of thousand to a couple of hundred — the symbolism of the trading floor cannot be overstated.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) shared his own concerns about the bid from Nasdaq, which has no trading floor and is fully electronic.

“I’m concerned about how this deal affects jobs in New York,” the lawmaker said. “I have asked Mr. Greifeld and Mr. Sprecher to send me details on the jobs impact of their proposed deal and what ramifications it would have for the New York workforce,” he said.

Known throughout the industry as an aggressive cost-cutter and dealmaker, Greifeld already highlighted some $720 million in potential savings from back-office and clearing. ICE estimates that it may be able to eke out some $200 million in cost savings through the deal.

“The idea that it would be patriotic to have the Nasdaq deal is mostly window dressing, in my view. I don’t think it’s really impacting the way people think about the deal,” Todd Schoenberger, managing director at LandColt Trading, told Reuters.mark.decambre@nypost.com